Jean-Paul Salomé: “The hardest thing in cinema is incarnation”
Author of the best box office start of the week with The Bojarski Affair, the director looks back on his collaboration with Reda Kateb and Bastien Bouillon.
After having chained Belphegor, Arsène Lupine And Women in the Shadowsit’s been almost 20 years since you last faced a historical period film…
Jean-Paul Salomé: And it’s anything but a coincidence. The adventure Women in the Shadows was complicated for a whole bunch of reasons. So without clearly telling myself that I wouldn’t be taken there again, I stayed away and the idea of returning there terrified me a little. Until the day my producer The Baroness assures me that he has a subject for me and talks to me about Jan Bojarski before entrusting me with all the documentation on him. I had never heard his name, I admit, and so I discovered his extraordinary life: a Polish engineer who came to take refuge in France during the war who counterfeited a staggering number of banknotes with such perfection that some are still sold at auction, all without anyone in his family knowing about it. The desire to make a film about him is therefore immediate. Because I am touched by this man who is neither friendly nor sympathetic, who, through this counterfeiting activity in which he excels as a person, will seek impossible recognition. Because she can only go through with being arrested by Inspector Mattei, the best cop in France who is on her trail. I see the possibility of a story that is both deeply romantic and intimate.
Due to Bojarski’s secretive and silent personality, this role constituted a real challenge for the person who was going to play him…
Bojarski actually has no one to confide in. With my co-writer Vincent Darré, we had initially written a few scenes that allowed these exchanges but they disappeared as the versions progressed, like crutches gradually becoming useless. Which in turn makes it the most exciting role for the person who was going to play it. But I needed a great actor otherwise this whole principle would lead us into a wall. And Reda is of that caliber. He inhabits the silences as few know how to do. Watch his films. Even alone in the image, without dialogue, something always happens. He accepted the role before the script was even written. And he never gave up on me despite the long time it always takes to realize such a project which, like so many others, has been postponed, postponed and sometimes close to being canceled for financing reasons. The most complex thing in cinema is incarnation. And in this game, Reda is impressive
It is Bastien Bouillon who plays Mattei who tracks him down. Did he also arrive very early in the project?
No, at the very end of the process just like Sara Giraudeau who plays Bojarski’s wife
His phrasing differs from what we are used to hearing from him. Is this a request from you?
No, at least not directly. I made for the whole team – actors and technicians – a list of ten great classics that I found interesting compared to The Bozharsky Affair : Don’t touch the grisbi, Razzia on the chnouf, The Red Circle, Cop, The Samurai…And to Bastien Bouillon, I told him to watch films with Paul Meurisse in particular. Not to imitate him but to observe how he portrayed his characters, whether they were cops or thugs. With this elegance similar to that of Mattei who, in life, was a true dandy married to a wealthy bourgeoisie and leading a lifestyle far, very far from his civil servant emoluments.
And without me really realizing it on set, Bastien took on this tone in his voice and in the diction different from the way he speaks in life. But without making it an Actor’s studio performance. It just vocally translates the way he took on the character. It was on the editing table that I really became aware of his work. One might wonder if the mayonnaise would come between his singular diction and Reda’s naturalistic acting. And in the end, this is one of the strong points of the film.
The Bojarski Affair. By Jean-Paul Salomé. With Reda Kateb, Bastien Bouillon, Sara Giraudeau… Duration 2h03. Released January 14, 2026
